Hervey Bay Gossip

While the tourism brochures depict Hervey Bay as a wonderful place for a holiday with great weather … which it really is … it’s not always fine and sunny here.

On Saturday night a particularly nasty storm cell went over the town delivering a storm that was about the worst we’ve experienced since we moved here in 2003. During the day on Saturday the weather wasn’t so great either as this video that we shot during the morning shows.

While it continues to rain, snow and blow down south here in Hervey Bay we couldn’t have asked for better weather in the middle of winter.

Of course the cold mornings do remind us that it is winter but this week the days have been glorious and people have been out and about enjoying the sunshine. If you had walked along Urangan Pier on Tuesday afternoon you would have been forgiven for thinking that we had somehow skipped the rest of winter and were enjoying a weekend in Spring.

3.30 on Tuesday afternoon and there plenty of people on Urangan Pier - the fish weren't biting but that wasn't stopping a lot of people from wetting a line.

The great weather is set to continue in Hervey Bay this weekend so be sure to get out and enjoy it

The unseasonally hot weather that’s hit Hervey Bay over the last few weeks seems as though it’s about to end.

The latest forecast suggest that we could be seeing maximums in the mid to high 20s in the coming week and some rain on most days next week.

If you were late getting out of bed this morning this is the Hervey Bay sunrise you missed.

Don’t let the title fool you … there’s nothing controversial to see here, just a photo of the storm that seemed poised to engulf Hervey Bay yesterday evening.

Despite the angry clouds all we got was a quick burst of heavy rain.

Of course when there's a spectacular shot like this on offer all Toni and I could muster between us was an iPhone

The Bureau of Meteorology has announced at 11.55am this morning that Tropical Cyclone Anthony has redeveloped this morning and is now moving in a north northeasterly direction.

The Bureau expects Tropical Cyclone Anthony to change direction and begin to move towards the Queensland coast and increase in intensity to a Category 2 Cyclone during Saturday. At the moment it’s not clear where the Cyclone will cross the coast but it’s currently north northeast of Townsville.

Tropical Cyclone Anthony continues to move in a generally easterly direction and the Bureau of Meteorology believes it will weaken in the next few hours.

At 4am this morning Tropical Cyclone Anthony was rated as a Category 1 tropical cyclone and was located approximately 820km northeast of Mackay.

At that time the cyclone’s central pressure was 991hPa and it was moving east at around 35km/h.

The Bureau of Meteorology believe that the cyclone will continue on a similar track for the next 24 to 36 hours and remain a Category 1 cyclone.

The Bureau of Meteorology at 5.19am this morning advised that Tropical Cyclone Zelia is currently moving southeast away from the Australian coast and should maintain a south-eastward track and increase in speed and intensity through the next 24 to 48 hours.

The Bureau believes that it will have no impact upon Australia.

I guess if you want to live in Queensland then you’ve got to take the great weather … with weather that’s not so great and sometimes it has the potential to go on getting worse. We’ve had the floods and now we have a tropical cyclone to think about.

A few hours ago the low that was lurking north-east of Willis Island upgraded to a Category 1 tropical cyclone and given the name Zelia. At the moment the Bureau believes that Tropical Cyclone Zelia will move slowly south-east and continue to grow in intensity.

By 1pm on Sunday the Weather Bureau predicts that Tropical Cyclone Zelia will have intensified to a Category 3 storm … be moving more quickly … and be situated over 700km east of Townsville

It’s holiday time … the caravan parks are full to the brim and the rain has been coming down for several days.

Warning signs are out for water across the road in a number of spots around Hervey Bay … including Boat Harbour Drive just south of the Banksia Park Drive intersection … pot holes are opening up in all the usual places as well as quite a few spots you don’t normally see them and conditions are miserable to say the least.

The following photos were taken around 6am this morning.

Driving rain on Boat Harbour Drive at the Nissan Street intersection

At 6am The Esplanade at Torquay is usually alive with bike riders, joggers and walkers - the rain kept them all at home this morning

There are a number of ponds around town that are designed to catch storm water runoff - the one in Nissan Stree near the hospital was almost ready to overflow.

Sea Front Oval is supposed to be the venue for a circus from tomorrow. This was just some of the water on the oval this morning.